Is an old Will still valid if I only have a photocopy?

Many people draft their Wills soon after getting married, tuck a photocopy into a filing cabinet, and then completely forget about it for forty or fifty years. Over time, the law firm that drafted the original Will may have merged, relocated, or shut down entirely.

If tragedy strikes and your family only possesses a faded photocopy of a 50-year-old Will, will the court accept it?

The Problem with Photocopies

In Queensland, the Supreme Court requires the original physical document to grant Probate. The original Will is scrutinized for physical signs of tampering, removed staples, or alterations.

If the original Will cannot be found at the time of your death, the law applies a strong legal presumption: The Presumption of Revocation. The courts will presume that tracing the document back to you and finding it missing means you intentionally destroyed it to revoke it.

Applying to Admit a Copy

It is possible to apply to the Supreme Court to admit a photocopy of the Will, but this is an expensive, stressful, and complex procedure. Your executor must provide extensive sworn evidence detailing:

1. Proof that the physical Will actually existed.
2. The exact circumstances under which it was lost.
3. Proof that you did not intend to revoke the Will by destroying it.
4. Searches conducted at law firms, banks, and the Public Trustee to locate it.

This process drains thousands of dollars from the estate in legal fees and delays the distribution of assets by several months.

Tracking Down Old Originals

If your Will was drafted decades ago by a law firm in another state (such as New South Wales or Victoria) that has since closed, you can contact that state’s Law Society. Law Societies usually maintain records of where a closed firm’s safe custody files were transferred.

However, as discussed on our Legal Matters Radio Show , tracking down a 50-year-old document is often an exercise in futility.

The Best Solution: Update Your Will

If you only have a photocopy of your Will, or if your Will is decades old, the safest, cheapest, and most responsible action is to execute a new Will.

A Will drafted half a century ago is guaranteed to be outdated. Executors may have died, beneficiaries may have been born, your asset structure has undoubtedly changed, and tax laws are entirely different.

Creating a new Will immediately revokes the old one, legally neutralizing the fact that the original is lost.

Related Topics

• Who has the right to get a copy of a Will in QLD?
• What triggers the need to update your Will?
• What are the risks of DIY Will kits?

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1. Succession Act 1981 (Qld) - The primary legislation defining the legal requirements for drafting, executing, and revoking a valid Will, including the presumption of revocation for missing originals.